Thursday, April 27, 2006

One of the most serendipitous experiences during my blog-fast was stumbling onto a once in a lifetime opportunity. [No, I did not meet Hrithik Roshan at my local shopping mall, shake his hand, pass out, and wake up to the sight of him making his most sincere and concerned face while cradling my head in his hands asking if I was alright. Be realistic!]

My once in a lifetime event went more like this:

Remarkably loyal yet bored female employee stares at computer monitor with glazed over eyes as midday sun beams heavily on screen from oversized window behind her. Her desk radio is set to a local grown and sexy (G&S) jazz station owned by local HBU. "In just a moment I'll be interviewing instructors from the upcoming Film Boot Camp that will be held as part of the Nashville International Black Film Festival," a non-chalant G&S dj states.

Her glazed over eyes shift to radio in disbelief. [Am I the only person that didn't know Nashville had an black film festival?!? I think not. This is MAJOR news! And a film boot camp?! Come on!]

Several tense, anticaptory minutes of failure to answer calls and refusal to leave for the restroom later, she hears the voice of her future instructors. The dj swoons over their resumes, "You worked with Spielberg, Debby Allen, etc." chattering frivilously until the words "our website N-I-B-F-F dot com...the phone number..." break into the air and hang like a cloud formation. The employee, now completely disinterested in work, immediately scribbles the address then pecks away at her keyboard.

As she is scanning the website, the words "boot camp...began yesterday..." tap quickly through the radio to the chalkboard of her mind like Morse code. The words, "come today...begins at 12 noon...$100," cause a spark of adrenaline electricity to pulse through her very being. She looks at the clock. It reads 11:45. Perfect timing for an extended lunch...

The fact that I was listening to the radio and not a cd is pure divine providence as I am far more cd prone. The fact that the campus is less than 10 minutes from my office allowed me to make the midday workshops fairly easily as far as midday excursions are concerned.

All that is to say that I spent three weeks learning [more] about film production and actually being on crew for a short film project. The process was not nearly as painful as it could have been for a number of reasons I won't bother to list here. The end result was a moderately ghetto fabulous piece that will later be posted when I am able to upload it.

All in all, I'm one step closer to making movies, a dream I've had since I was a kid. I haven't won any awards yet but First and foremost, I want to give thanks to God...